Inspirational Christian Advent

According to the Cambridge dictionary, Advent is defined as: the beginning of an event, the invention of something, or the arrival of a person and for Christians, Advent is the period of four weeks before Christmas. The season of Advent is meant to be one of expectant reflection, anticipating the coming Messiah. We hope the following bible reading program for Advent and a weekly devotional for each week will be of help to you as you place Christ first this Christmas.

Scripture Readings For Advent Plan

Weekly Advent Devotionals

Week One

Jeremiah 33:14-16
"The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time, I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called, "The Lord is our righteousness"

From the Daily Christian Quote Archive:

November 25, 2002

Have I then no work to work in this great matter of my pardon? None. What work canst thou work? What work of thine can buy forgiveness or make thee fit for the Divine favour? What work has God bidden thee work in order to obtain salvation? None. His Word is very plain and easy to be understood, "To him that worketh not, but believeth in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom. 4:5). There is but one work by which a man can be saved. That work is not thine, but the work of the Son of God. That work is finished.

Horatius Bonar

Jeremiah's prophecy was radical for his time. "The Lord is our righteousness"? What freedom rings in those four simple words. Generation after generation, the people of Israel were bound to outward sacrifices, following endless rules and commands in the faint hope of being seen as 'righteous' or 'good' in God's sight. There wasn't always a guarantee that their sacrifice would even be acceptable in the eyes of the Lord.

Their heavenly Father knew that sinful man was incapable of doing 'enough' to gain divine favour and thus he put into place a grand scheme. He would send his own son to become our righteousness, to become the one acceptable sacrifice for all time.

"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (Galatians 4:4-5,)

As the Christmas rush begins, could I encourage you to take time this week to count the ways your life has been changed through the greatest gift of all, our Messiah? There is nothing we can do to prove our worth to God but we can bless his heart through our gratefulness for becoming our righteousness.

To help you bring Christ to the centre of your Christmas, I invite you to visit:

http://psalm121.ca/dec2007.html
Whatever is Pure - Christmas 2007 Edition
Edifying testimonies, devotionals and poetry all giving attention to the Centre of our seasonal celebrations.

http://blessingsofchristmas.com
Blessings of Christmas - Another branch of I Lift My Eyes Ministries.

When God comes down, He removes the immovable difficulties. When God comes down, the impossible becomes reality. God moves on behalf of the one who waits.

Anonymous

Romans 5:1-5
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

An anxious couple, aged far before their time, rushed behind the ambulance carrying their only son to the critical care hospital nearby. It is a trip they'd taken countless times yet they always had that faint hope that perhaps 'this' time, the doctors would have a cure. Up to now, that hope was never met in reality. The doctors could only pump their boy's frail body with fluids and antibiotics and send him home, their own frustration showing as the medical field had no permanent solution. They lived with the knowledge that their son was slowly dying, day after day, year after year.

Looking at their frail lad as he slept in his hospital bed later on that night, the husband wrapped his arms around his wife, allowing her to lean against his strength. "We can only hope ...and do all we can do to keep our son alive. We can't give up... The doctors will find the cure, they promised." Only able to give a brief nod through her own exhaustion, she whispered with determination. "We'll go on, there is nothing else we can do."

Not unlike these anxious parents, the children of Israel waited with hope that their Messiah would come, freeing them from the slavery of their own sin and the sins of their oppressors. They lived with the knowledge that even the most skilled and pious of the high priests and rabbis could not stop the relentless progression of generations of sin. Although their blood offerings and sacrifices would cleanse them temporarily, each child of Israel knew that it was only a temporary fix. They could only hope .... for the day that a permanent cure would be found.

Little did they know that the cure would be wrapped in swaddling cloths and born in a shanty. Little did they know that a young man from questionable parentage and from a remote backwards town would be this cure, the once and for all sacrifice, the conquerer of death.

Lord, we have situations in our lives that seem hopeless yet we can only trust in you, knowing that you hold all things in your hands. You are not only our physician, you are the cure, you are our hope. We give you our addictions, our sin, our debt. We give you our loved ones who don't know you, our broken dreams, our faint hopes, our broken hearts. We give you our sleepless nights caused by chronic pain, We give you everything and simply trust that our hope in you will not be met with disappointment but will be met by your loving heart.

Ephesians 2:11 -18 (NIV)
Remember that ... you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace,and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Colossians 3:15 (NIV)
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

God's main priority in sending Jesus to Earth was to reconcile man to himself, he himself fulfilling the requirements needed in order to bring about this reconciliation, Knowing full well that outside of Him, mankind was incapable of following though on our part of the covenant forged so long ago, He became our peace broker. By his birth, life, death and resurrection, he became the doorway for mankind to enter into true unending peace with God. We were given full access to the throne room of God and his door of friendship was swung wide open. Man no longer needed to be at odds with God, the peace treaty's requirements were met through His son and we only had to agree to the terms of this new covenant and enter into his kingdom through repentance and surrender to his Lordship.

Not only did Jesus's death and resurrection offer lasting peace between man and God, his sacrifice brought the potential of the same peace between his children. As we give Christ's peace lordship over our hearts in relation to him, he asks us to extend that same offer of 'peace' to our brothers and sisters. He asks us to lay down our weapons of self-defensiveness, self-righteousness, unforgiveness and bitterness and to tear down the distrusting walls that we have built around the kingdoms of our hearts due to past hurt and offences.

Lord, we so easily embrace your offer of forgiveness and reconciliation and eagerly enter into a new relationship of peace with you but it is so hard for us to reach out to those around us who we have been at war with within our hearts. Oh, we may sit beside them at church, sit across the family dinner table from them, we may be in an uneasy truce of sorts, both sides pretending that there isn't a problem, but we know full well the wall we have built between our hearts. Give us the humble grace to reach out a hand of peace this Christmas season. Father God, we are willing to be the first to extend the hand of peace, in true forgiveness, repentance and humbleness of heart, in order that we as members of your body obey your call to peace. We ask you to give us the courage to step forward in obedience as we go forth to seek reconciliation with those specific people you have laid on our hearts as we have prayed this prayer.

Hallelujah Chorus by Georg Friedrich Handel

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

The kingdom of this world
Is become the kingdom of our Lord,
And of His Christ, and of His Christ;
And He shall reign for ever and ever,
For ever and ever, forever and ever,

King of kings, and Lord of lords,
King of kings, and Lord of lords,
And Lord of lords,
And He shall reign,
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings, forever and ever,
And Lord of lords,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
And He shall reign forever and ever,
King of kings! and Lord of lords!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah!

They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings-;and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

The children of Israel had been in slavery and oppression for hundreds of years. Their birthright had been stripped from them, their land plundered and their hope all but vanquished by the consequences of their own sin and the attack of the enemy against them, Every Sabbath, they would go to Temple and hear the priests and rabbis read from the prophets and hope ... or perhaps only wishfully daydreamed of what it would be like when the Prince of Peace came.

"Just wait until the Messiah comes and slaughters all our enemies, then I'll be living in peace alright! Milk and honey will flow, I'll get back all that I deserve! We'll see who is laughing then!"

"Huh! Wait until they see Israel in her splendour once again and our King in royal robes and imagine, we can feast on their food for a change and they can have our leftovers. Give them a taste of their own medicine, that's what our King will do!"

The birth of Jesus Christ in a humble shack in the back of an inn, born to a poor peasant girl didn't quite fit into the vengeful picture of a powerful King coming to the rescue and slaughtering all their enemies. Neither did the words of Jesus later in his life. "Turn the other cheek, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, pick up your cross, the first shall be last ..." Where was the glory in all that?

Yet, Jesus, their Messiah called them by his example, his words and his commands to follow him. The children of Israel wanted a Messiah but did they truly want a King, did they truly desire to be servants and subjects to His Heavenly Lordship? Were they ready and willing to follow the commands and direction of a King who would lead them into battles they did not want to wage? The battles within their sinful hearts?

Praise God, we know the end of the story, we know that our King does reign victorious and his kingdom has no end. As we celebrate Christmas, we are forced to remember that our King reigned in humbleness of heart, although he had full knowledge of his true power and position.

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your example, we thank you for your love, we thank you for your sacrifice and for our lives and we say say, Come Lord Jesus Come. Come into our hearts, come into our families, help us to truly be servants of the heart one to another. Thank you for humble beginnings and thank you that even in the full glory of your Kingship, you still choose to come close to us as Immanuel, God with us.

Advent Bible Readings for 2006
Adapted from The Book of Common Prayer,
Daily Readings for Year One